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UMNO Shoots Itself In The Foot Again

The UMNO disciplinary board found six guilty of money politics in the recent divisional elections, and suspeneded them from contesting party elections for a period, it should have shown seriously to halt an endemic problem. Instead, excuses are given why they should be allowed to continue as before. One of the six is a state executive councillor from Kedah. The mentri besar's immediate response is how valuable he is to the state, that his offences did not matter, and he would remain. Yesterday, an UMNO vice president, Tan Sri Muhyuddin Yassin, says Dato' Zainol Mohamed Isa need not be sacked from the executive council "as the state has the right to retain him".

It is money politics which rule UMNO these days. It can insist it is not. But that is the rule. Business men nurture UMNO members into positions of influence and affluence. In the explosion of money men under the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed's 20 years in office, the newly rich business men, especially cronies and courtiers of the establishment, burnished their financial clout with political machinations. This cannot be denied. Prominent Malay business men are asked to contribute to holding of UMNO meetings. When that is allowed, it is a small step for rich independent UMNO members to buy their way into office. If anything, this is more serious now than it was a decade ago. When contracts and projects are given to favoured business men, it is safe to assume that much money has changed hands. One man given the right to develop one area in Petaling Jaya South, where the racial clashes took place recently, finds he cannot develop it. The money he paid to acquire it is lost for ever.

So, when UMNO established this discpilinary committee to monitor money politics, it would not meet the problem head on, but only by piece meal. It wanted respected party elders to decide, and compromised them first by frequent statements of what they would do, then by defying them. The UMNO supreme council should have met and affirmed or rejected the decisions. Instead, party leaders make statements that make the leaders even more confused about rooting out money politics. One state UMNO leader in charge of discipline threatens to resign if his committee's recommendations are ignored. And this can be replicated in other states.

Yet, the one major crisis on its hands, which an UMNO state assemblyman, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, lobbed against the UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, is in no man's land. It was serious, detailed, and came in the form of a police report. The UMNO president, who is also prime minister, should have removed the man straight away. Instead, he does nothing. Neither has he acted upon Dato' Fauzi's threat to resign as state assemblyman. He said he had submitted his resignation to the mentri besar of Pahang, Dato' Adnan Yaakub, but it has yet to be forwarded to the Elections Commission. A byelection in Pahang now could well see PAS retaining it. Dato' Fauzi supports the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and has thrown the UMNO machinery into confusion. So, it is money politics and the Anwar affair that weighs UMNO down.

But if UMNO does not resolve this crisis over money politics -- and it can do this only by a firm declaration of intent, which it then carries out -- it would aggravate the Anwar problem. Not that there is any connexion between the two, but that if money politics is unresolved, it would strengthen the Anwar forces in UMNO even more. UMNO's problem though is that those it must force out or retire are the party strongmen who can cause untold problems to it if they are reined in or forced out. UMNO is in ferment, with its internal contradictions so severe that its ability to lead is severely challenged. How UMNO ministers handled the education problem recently is one indication that it is every man for himself at the top. Every act brings forth more confusion, not only with the public, but amongst themselves as well.

There is no leadership. The cabinet is beyond redemption. The Prime Minister hectors and orders, but few listen to him. The Malay rebels. What happened to the Country Heights managing director in the last few days is no accident. It is yet another sign of support moving away from the government. When that support is Malay, the government is in serious trouble. When it cannot act firmly in what gnaws at its vitals, more of that is in store. Its attempt to rein in dissent did not induce the fear it normally would. UMNO is, if nothing is done to turn it around, in the final stages of political cancer. Nothing it has done in recent months suggest it is fighting back.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my